Consumers desire a soft tissue, but they also want the tissue to be thick, absorbent and durable to protect their hands when they blow. The consumers' desires present a dilemma for the tissue maker—thickness and absorbency may be achieved by increasing the basis weight of the tissue, but at the expense of increasing stiffness which reduces softness. Increasing basis weight also impairs softness by making the tissue web more difficult to process by creping as conventional creping chemistries are limited in their ability to produce a fine crepe structure at higher basis weights.
As such, a need currently exists for a tissue product having low stiffness at higher basis weight such that the tissue maker may produce a soft, yet thick and absorbent tissue.